My Life

As Seen In My Life: Slide!

rosesdaughter — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

The weather has been horrible here last week. On top of that, Pookah and I were sick, so we really hadn’t made it outside to our faovirte neighborhood playground. But Saturday morning, we had a brief bit of warmth that we took advantage of.

My Baby Needs a Cupcake! (Gluten Free Adventures)

rosesdaughter — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:00:25 +0000

So, last week, there were several birthday parties at Pookah’s school. I guess they have just been denying Pookah a cupcake or piece of cake, and he’s been alright with that. But last week, he went HAM on them, and stole a cupcake.

And ate half of it before they got to him.

I’m sure he had THIS expression on his face…

Now.

Amazingly, he didn’t have a reaction.

Or if he did, it was so small that no one noticed.

The principle said that she looked him over, saw no hives, no runny nose, no wheezing, no rash, no NOTHING.

How very very strange.

I’ll be investigating that further, but in the meantime, I’ve decided that I need to provide my child an alternative, so he won’t feel the need to ummmm steal a cupcake.

That may or may not kill him.

So, all the mixes in the stores are HORRIBLE!

Let me repeat.

HORRIBLE!

You take the gluten out, and you are left with this dry crumbly mess.

Fortunately, all of Duncan Hines icings are gluten free.

But I’ve been searching for alternatives for better tasting cupcakes.

And I might have found something.

A few weeks ago, I found Deliciously G-Free: Food So Flavorful They’ll Never Believe It’s Gluten-Free By Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Amazingly, there are several cupcake recipes WITH the recipes for many gluten free mixes for cupcakes, cookies and brownies. She( elizabeth Hasselback) was on that new show The Chew and they RAVED about how good the cupcakes were.

Her claim to fame is that she tried these out on her husband and her children and they passed the test.

Well, I’m about to put it to the test. I will NOT have Pookah potentially having a reaction because he’s tired of being left out of the fun.

So, I’ll update you guys with photos and taste test results.

In the meantime, I’ve got to find

brown rice flour
coconut flour
tapioca starch

For the classic yellow cupcakes and

brown rice flour
sweet sorghum flour
potato flour

For the Devil’s Food Cupcakes.

Of course, I could only find the brown rice flour in Whole Foods. I did find the tapioca starch and Coconut Flour in Kroger. Soooo, I’m going to have to order the rest off of Amazon.

Wish me luck folks! My baby needs a cupcake!!

P.S. The photo above is participating in Sweet Shot Tuesdays! Go check it out!

Show off Your Shot

rosesdaughter — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:11:55 +0000

Happy Monday!

Since it’s a holiday, and I just worked the WHOLE weekend like old times….

Today is a photo day!!!

Enjoy

This photo is participating in And Then She Snapped Show Off Your Shot. Go see the other photos!!

SOC Sunday: Fate

rosesdaughter — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 06:00:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Stream of Conciousness Sunday.

I’m using Fadra’s prompt today which is: What’s your take on fate?Does everything happen for a reason? Are we in control of our own destiny?

Whenever I think about fate, I think about that poem Ivictus by William Eanest Henley. You know “I am the captain of my fate, I am the master of my soul.” Fate is a complicated thing in my life. On the one hand, I believe that God has a plan for you from BEFORE you were born. He knows what you have been put on this earth to do, and that life is set out before you. But on the other hand, I also believe that God allows you choices. And these choices make you the master of your fate, the captain of your soul. I believe that we have free will, and that we can choose our direction. I believe that there are just things in life that we are supposed to do, people we are supposed to meet, places we are supposed to go. But when, whether and how these things happen, is up to us. We can get there the long or the short way, the easy or the hard way. I know it sounds complicated, but faith IS complicated. And so is this question. Take my life for example: no matter what I did in life, it was my fate to be a nurse and it seems a writer. I said I wanted to be a nurse at a young age, around 6. My grandmother was one. And I liked her crisp startched uniforms. But I liked to write stories about my dolls. I liked to write poems. In jr high school, I decided I wanted to be a dr. But in high school, my love of writing came back, and I was good at it. I went to collage as a jounalism major. I wrote for magazines, newspapers( if you look me up in real life, you’ll see that I have an article in The Washington Post from when I was like 18). I was born to write. That was my purpose in life. But for some reason, being a nurse always came back to me. And I switched my major. Just like that. And became a nurse. But as fate( I guess) would have it, I rediscovered writing, and now it seems like it’s in my fate/path/future to write. It’s like when poeple die young and you hear, Gone too soon. No, they aren’t gone too soon. its just that they did what fate/God meant for them to do on this earth. They served their purpose in who ever’s lives they entered and left. It’s their fate. It’s their destiny. It happened as it should.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
Link up your post here.
Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

The Newbie Chronicles: Shutter Speed

rosesdaughter — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Hey guys! Welcome back to the Newbie Chronicles!

Today, we continues to explore the exposure triangle and talk about Shutter Speed.

your Shutter Speed determines the amount of time your shutter remains open when you take your photo.

Therefore, the longer your shutter stays open, the more light comes in. Combinations of Shutter Speed and Aperture can work together to help you control your exposure. Or, how light or dark a photo is.

Another thing that your shutter speed helps you to control, is showing or freezing motion.

For example:

In this photo, I used shutter speed to show motion. I wanted you to see the motion of Pookah tuning the pages. So I lowered my shutter speed.

Settings: Shutter Speed 1/20, F/4.0 and ISO 3200

And in this photo, I wanted to freeze motion. So I used a higher shutter speed to capture Pookah in mid swing!

Settings: Shutter Speed 1/125 F 5.6 ISO 100

So that is my short lesson on the basics (very BASICS) of shutter speed. Stay tuned next week when I talk about ISO and we put it all together.

As Seen In My Life: Thoughts at O’dark Thirty…

rosesdaughter — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:32 +0000

You know, I love this child. But I have moments, like right now at 4 am when I’m in pain and can’t sleep in my own bed because there is a toddler in there who is taking over the world one bed at a time, when I wonder what the heck was I thinking? It is times like these at o’dark thirty that I remember my life when I was not a parent with great fondness. You know, the sleeping all night, all the extra disposable income, the peace and quiet.

But then, I think about that face above and I can’t imagine my life without him. Feet in back, sleepless nights, no money having and all.

Sigh. I love that boy.

Happy Valentines Day

rosesdaughter — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:00:54 +0000

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know about the issues that I’ve faced during my marriage in the last few years.

I haven’t really talked about how we’ve been doing for the last couple of months. After everything came to a head, I decided to back off talking about us for a minute until I could get some perspective.

Well.

So, now that I don’t work EVERY single weekend, we’ve had more time to spend together as a family and as a couple.. And instead of going straight to bed most nights when I am home, I’ve started taking my laptop wherever he is. And I’ve even *gasp* turned it off to have conversations. Some nights we just sit in the same room, occasionally talking while each is on his/her laptop. Some nights we engage in extra curricular activities . Some nights we watch a show( we LOVE that new show Alcatraz. If I’m not home, he will Ti-Vo it and wait for me before we watch it.) We’ve been compromising on a few things, and we are talking more, agreeing more. It’s been getting better.

We’re still working on our babysitting issues so that we can get out just the two of us more, but I’ve found that it’s easier for me to meet up with him every other week and have lunch. Just the two of us. And that’s BIG.

But don’t get me wrong, we still argue. We still bicker. And sometimes, he gets on my last nerve because we just can’t see eye to eye on some things. But we’re trying. We’re making progress.

And I guess that’s what marriage is all about. Sticking around through the good and the bad. Working on our marriage instead of just existing in it.

So we’re a work in progress that is progressing.

Stay tuned.

Sickies, Grammy’s, Whitney, and Other Stuff….

rosesdaughter — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:00:34 +0000

The weekend is over.

I was sick.

Pookah was sick. But like most toddlers, he still had a ton of crazy energy. He spent the weekend driving us crazy. Even Elmo wasn’t spared…

It was cold as a witch’s tit and we couldn’t even go out and get fresh air.

Which made for some stir crazy folks around here.

Whitney Houston died.

I spent all day Sunday listening to her music. Have you listened to My Love is Your love lyrics?

If tomorrow is judgment day (Sing Mommy)
And I’m standing on the front line
And the Lord asks me what I did with my life
I will say I spent it with you…….

If I should die this very day
Don’t cry, ’cause on Earth we weren’t meant to stay
And no matter what the people say
I’ll be waiting for you after the judgment day……..

Sigh.

The Grammy’s as a whole was BORING.

It looked like a reunion at a Nursing Home. Like they just pulled up the bus and let folks off.

I must be getting old. I only liked two of the performances last night. Adele’s and J-Hud’s.

Nicki Minaj needs an exercisim.

Jennifer Hudson’s tribute was touching, appropriate and too short.

Like I said yesterday, pray for Whitney’s child.

Pray for Bobby, even if you don’t like him. You can’t be married to someone for almost 15 years and NOT care.

I’m renting a new lens for my camera today. Sort of a test before you buy. I pick it up at 1030am. I’m so excited.

I also start a new photography class over at Clickin Moms. I love these classes! I’m addicted!

Well, that’s about it.

How was your weekend?

By the way, the photo above is participating in Show Off Your Shot over at And Then She Snapped!

Remembering Whitney

rosesdaughter — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:16:41 +0000

Photo courtesy In Style Magazine January 2010 issue

Whitney Houston.

I remember with perfect clarity, the first time I heard Whitney Houston’s version of The Greatest Love of All. My Daddy and I were driving down South Capital Street in DC. The day was sunny, her voice was clear, fabulous, pure, brilliant, amazing. I was 10. But I knew. I knew that THIS was a voice that I would never forget.

Of course, I was right. Her voice soared. It made you tremble, rejoice, and dance. It made you sit in front of your mirror with a hairbrush and try to sing just like her.

I loved me some Whitney Houston.

I loved her through her ups and downs. I loved her through the drugs, through the pain, throughout everything.

I feel like I’m mourning a friend, a family member, a sister.

I will always love Whitney. Her talent, her voice, her legacy will always be remembered over here.

I will be praying her for Mom and her daughter. I will be praying for her friends, her loved ones. She was loved. She will be remembered.

Rest in peace.

Project 52 Week 6:Drink Up

rosesdaughter — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:06:01 +0000

Ahhh look, it’s my old friends lemon and honey. Along with that lurker Mr Rum. I’m sick again and these are my friends to help me sleep. I need them. I’m miserable and have to go back to work tonight. Please my friends…..help me…..

This week’s theme was drink up by the way. Now hop on over and see the rest!